What do you guys think is the best focus mode for more than one person in say a group shot.. Using the 35mm f/1.8 prime I find that I might get stunning pin-sharp clarity and IQ on, say, the face/person on the right, but the person on the left is distinctly soft and a lil OOF... Not always this pattern, but same idea.

What do you think is the best way to make it so when there is/are >1 person in a shot; like for example a group shot, or even just two people- EVERY1 is in focus..

Also, sometimes everything seems to be fine and then there are times when I have this problem.. I just want to know if there is something I'm missing.

I mostly use AF-A/Auto, but have recently been playing with AF-C.

Any help would be app.

This is a very old thread but it certainly has relevance and your question is a good one.

You want the person closest to the camera to be in focus and you want the person farthest from the camera to be in focus. For that to happen the aperture the camera is set to must be small enough to have a Depth of Field (DOF) that is large enough to include the group and to be placed so the closest person and the farthest person are in it. If you don't know what DOF is...then you won't be able to understand how to do what you want. If that is the case...here is a link to explain it

Now that you know what DOF is, you need to use a focus mode that allows you to control where you place it. First, focus mode AF-A is very inconsistent and will not let you control DOF effectively in many cases. To solve that learn to use AF-S and or AF-C.

AF-Area mode "auto" gives you next to zero ability to control the placement of DOF so you need to choose a different AF-Area mode. I recommend "9pt" or "single" till you get good at it. You might also search "DOF" in the "beginners forum" and get some really good answers as well.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays.

Hey Mako, Thank you very much for your reply.

I'm well aware of how DOF works- I guess my issue is that 99% of the time, the DOF isn't the problem as the subject(s) are always on the same plane- I.e. say 4 people hugging on the exact same horizontal level, not behind each other etc.. So for example, using YOUR example above; say, 9 point- and then manually moving the focus point to one person, say the one furthest on the right- what do you do now with the left-most person? Since I believe you cannot control two focus points independently -- or at least I've never been able to work that out...?

So i guess what I'm saying is, if DOF is not a problem- and you have even just two people side by side- using your 9-point method, what would be the ultimate way to make sure BOTH are as close as possible to 100% in focus.. Or at least as focused as possible, and not one more than the other.. (Say they are the exact same distanct away from the cam- evenly spaced right in-front of it.. In a utopian world, of course